Police Friday announced an international manhunt for a former butcher at the centre of a breast implants scandal affecting thousands of British women.

Interpol is searching for Jean-Claude Mas, the 72-year-old founder of Poly Implant Prothese (PIP), which sold thousands of implants full of industrial silicone to women all over the world, including some 40,000 in the UK.

The company, which was based in Marseilles, in the south of France, was liquidated by judges earlier this year, with Mas ‘disappearing’, according to detectives.

Now Interpol, the international police organisation based in Lyon, has issued a ‘red notice’ saying that Mas is wanted for ‘threatening life and health’ in Costa Rica.

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Mas started his career as former butcher selling ham and sausage but then moved into the lucrative plastic surgery market.